皇后大学（Queen's University）的生物研究表明，应激激素水平高的鸟类具有很高的交配成功率，并能很好地照顾后代。
致力于研究动物应对环境变化的生物学家 Frances Bonier称：“人们通常认为高水平的糖皮质激素或应激激素可反映出个体处于低交配成功率的不良状况，而我们研究的结论是应激激素水平高的树燕有很高的交配成功率。”
糖皮质激素大量分泌后，雌鸟会增加喂养雏鸟的频率，这一现象推测出应激激素促进父母更好地照顾子女。
过去的几年，研究人员发现应激激素水平与哺育后代数量、后代体重之间的联系，下一阶段的工作是调节树燕体内应激激素的水平，进而观察对照顾后代行为的影响。
Bonier还称，树燕的QUBS群体提供了开展大范围田间试验的唯一机会，在这个试验中，我们可以梳理关于放养动物的生活环境、生理、行为和健康状况之间复杂的相互作用。
相关的研究将刊登在Biology Letters杂志上。
树燕
生物探索推荐英文原文
Stress May Lead to Better Bird Parenting
Birds with high levels of stress hormones have the highest mating success and offer better parental care to their brood, according to new biology research at Queen's University.
"Having high levels of glucocorticoid or stress hormone is often thought to indicate an individual in poor condition who has a low level of mating success. However, our research indicates that tree swallows with the highest levels of stress hormone have the highest reproductive success," says Frances Bonier (Biology) who investigates the way animals cope with challenges in their environment.
The researchers measured glucocorticoid levels in female tree swallows before and after experimentally changing their brood sizes. Females whose broods were enlarged by two nestlings nearly doubled their glucocorticoid levels, while the glucocorticoid levels of females whose broods were reduced remained unchanged.
Females with greater increases in glucocorticoids also fed their nestlings at higher rates, suggesting that stress hormones facilitate parental behaviour. In previous years, the researchers found correlations between stress hormone levels, the number of offspring in a brood, and the amount of weight nestlings gained. The next stage is manipulating levels of stress hormones in tree swallows and observing subsequent effects on parental behaviour.
For all these studies, the focal system is a nest-box breeding population of tree swallows established more than 35 years ago at the Queen's University Biological Station (QUBS).
"The QUBS population of tree swallows offers a unique opportunity to conduct large-scale field experiments, allowing us to tease apart the complex interactions between the environment, physiology, behaviour, life history and fitness effects in free-ranging animals," says Dr. Bonier.
QUBS has been a pivotal part of research and teaching at Queen's for more than six decades and hosts researchers from both Canadian and international institutions. Research at QUBS has resulted in more than 800 publications in peer-reviewed journals and more than 200 graduate and undergraduate theses.
Dr. Bonier's research will be published in an upcoming issue of Biology Letters.periments, allowing us to tease apart the complex interactions between the environment, physiology, behaviour, life history and fitness effects in free-ranging animals," says Dr. Bonier.
QUBS has been a pivotal part of research and teaching at Queen's for more than six decades and hosts researchers from both Canadian and international institutions. Research at QUBS has resulted in more than 800 publications in peer-reviewed journals and more than 200 graduate and undergraduate theses.
Dr. Bonier's research will be published in an upcoming issue of Biology Letters.
